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Updated 2025-12-22 17:18
PSA: if you bought The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom digitally, get preloading now
It’s almost time to drop in, folks. | Image: Nintendo Did you preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on the Nintendo eShop? Cool. Wait, did you also preorder it using Nintendo’s Game Voucher so you got it for cheaper? Even better — extra points for you! But regardless of how much you paid, if you opted for the digital version of TOTK, you should fire up your Switch and get downloading if you’d like to start playing when the game goes live in the US tonight a 12:00AM ET on May 12th.While Tears is already playable in time zones that live in the future, and players are already getting up to, well, umm... stuff — we here in the States get to begin at midnight ET / 9:00PM PT (curse you, left-coasters and your respectable bedtimes tonight). TOTK is a 16GB download from the eShop, so... Continue reading…
Here are 26 last-minute gifts you can still grab before Mother’s Day
Image: Lego The clock is ticking if you’ve yet to buy your mom a gift. While it might be too late to pick up some items before Mother’s Day arrives on Sunday, not all hope is lost. As it turns out, there are still a number of great gifts — including the latest Kindle and Beats Fit Pro — that will arrive on time, many of which are also discounted in the run-up to the holiday.We’ve rounded up a selection of the best last-minute gifts below, along with a few digital ideas for the true procrastinators among us. We’ve also curated a wide-ranging Mother’s Day gift guide should you need a little more inspiration as well as a wallet-friendly gift guide for those working with a tighter budget.Finally, before we dive into the gifts, be aware that you’ll... Continue reading…
Twitch made it easier to edit clips for TikTok and YouTube Shorts
The Clip Editor allows you to quickly grab sections of your livestream and edit them effectively for vertical video formats. | Image: Twitch Twitch is launching a new web-based desktop clips editing tool to help streamers grow their audience by sharing curated snippets of their content to other platforms. The aptly named Clip Editor tool is rolling out today, allowing users to easily edit livestream footage directly from the Clip Manager in the Twitch Creator Dashboard.Streamers can use the Clip Editor tool to convert their recording to a portrait mode orientation at the click of a button, suitable for vertical video platforms like TikTok. Those clips can also be directly exported to YouTube Shorts within Clip Manager. Image: Twitch You can only upload directly to YouTube Shorts for now, but the edited clips can also be saved for use on other... Continue reading…
Peloton recalls over 2 million bikes due to faulty seats
The seat on certain Peloton bikes may break during use. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton is eager for people to know it’s more than “that bike company.” Unfortunately, those bikes are at the heart of the beleaguered fitness company’s latest woes. Today, Peloton and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a voluntary recall of 2.2 million Peloton Bikes after 35 reports of seats either breaking or falling off during use.A Bloomberg report offers some more details about the faulty seat. Namely, the part that attaches the seat to the bike frame could potentially break off at the welding joint. Of the 35 reports, 13 resulted in injuries, including a fractured wrist, lacerations, and bruises.The affected bikes were sold at Peloton and Dick’s Sporting Goods retail and online stores as well as on Amazon.... Continue reading…
Xbox exec hints at bringing features like Quick Resume to Windows gamers
Photography by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge During a launch event for the Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC, Roanne Sones, the head of Xbox devices, discussed how the device is “making us think differently about the experiences” for gaming on Windows PCs.Specifically, she called out how today’s consoles let you quickly resume a game and said the ROG Ally pushes Microsoft to think about that for PCs as well: “How do we think about integrating this into the Windows platform?” Another focus is on making it easy to immediately pick up where you left off, moving from gaming on a PC to a session that’s ready to go on this kind of handheld.Sones has made similar comments before, as my colleague Tom Warren points out. During another ROG Ally event in April, she discussed working with... Continue reading…
Where to preorder the Asus ROG Ally
A handheld window to Windows gaming. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Asus ROG Ally is the first mainstream competition for the Steam Deck, and while its Windows operating system may be both a blessing and a curse, it’s exciting to see the handheld PC gaming arena slowly grow. If you’re looking to get an Ally of your own, warts and all, preorders are now open at Best Buy for the higher-end model with an AMD Z1 Extreme processor costing $699.99 and due out on June 13th.As for the base model with a standard AMD Z1, that’s not expected until the third quarter of 2023 — though it will also be sold at Best Buy, which for now, is the exclusive Ally retailer. (I guess that makes Best Buy an Ally ally?)Our own Sean Hollister had mixed praise for the ROG Ally, as it’s a powerful device whose biggest fault is... Continue reading…
HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook review: a colorful competitor
Several companies have tried pricey Chromebooks with premium builds and gorgeous screens. HP’s Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is just the latest — and it’s a solid machine, but some hiccups with battery life, weight, and connectivity keep it from being a really great buy. Continue reading…
Epic Games invested in a digital fashion company
Image: CLO Virtual Fashion Epic Games and digital fashion company CLO Virtual Fashion have purchased shares in each other, the two companies announced on Thursday. The press release doesn’t specify how much each level of investment actually represents, but it’s a clear sign of Epic’s interest in virtual fashion as another aspect of its growing metaverse ambitions.CLO Virtual Fashion offers tools like fashion design software that already integrates with Epic’s Unreal Engine and a marketplace where garment designs are bought and sold. Epic has been pushing for Unreal Engine to be used beyond game development — it’s becoming increasingly popular in the automotive world — so it makes some sense that Epic wants industries like fashion to use Unreal Engine as well.“... Continue reading…
Asus confirms the ROG Ally will start at $600 — if you can wait till Q3
The Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC is officially on preorder today for $700, shipping June 13th — but there’s also a less expensive, less powerful model shipping in Q3 for $600 that reviewers haven’t yet been able to try.Asus PR told us it wouldn’t have pricing and availability for that model today, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see official confirmation! Screenshot by Sean Hollister / Image by Asus Pricing. Better still, it looks like Asus isn’t skimping on storage, as it’ll come with a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD for that price. (Leaked data suggested it’d have a 256GB SSD.)Considering Valve charges $650 for its 512GB Steam Deck with a last-gen processor, that model is starting to look like a pretty good... Continue reading…
Netflix canceled its in-person upfront, probably to avoid the WGA’s picket lines
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Just a few months ago, Netflix was proud to announce that it was putting on its first-ever in-person upfront week presentation in New York City alongside other networks and streamers vying for advertiser cash, like NBCUniversal, Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. But after being tipped off by the NYPD about striking WGA writers planning to protest outside of the event, Netflix has suddenly decided to shift to an all-virtual presentation with no celebrities in attendance.AdWeek reports that Netflix’s move to cancel its in-person upfront at New York City’s Paris Theater in favor of a new “produced to stream” presentation came after the streamer was made aware of the plans of local WGA members to demonstrate — plans that the WGA... Continue reading…
Raycast’s new Pro subscription adds AI and syncing features
Image: Raycast Raycast, the full-featured launcher for Mac, has announced an $8 per month Pro subscription (billed annually) that adds new AI and syncing features, along with the option for unlimited clipboard history, as reported by MacStories.The Pro subscription expands on Raycast’s existing launcher functionalities, which are quite extensive. It replaces the app’s existing search bar with “Quick AI,” allowing you to ask it to come up with blog post titles, solve programming problems, and more.You can copy and paste the answer into whatever you’re working on or bring your conversation into Raycast’s new AI Chat feature. This AI-powered chatbot lives in a resizable window that you can toggle with an assignable hotkey.There are also new AI... Continue reading…
Whales are dying, but it’s not because of wind farms
The tail of a dead beached whale is seen on Rockaway beach on December 13th, 2022, in the Queens borough of New York City. | Photo by Bryan Bedder / Getty Images Whales are washing up along the east coast of the US. Offshore wind opponents blame future wind farms. Experts see a different threat. Continue reading…
EU draft legislation will ban AI for mass biometric surveillance and predictive policing
The draft legislation will ban mass facial recognition, among other uses of AI, but has yet to be confirmed as law. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The EU has taken a step closer to enforcing strong regulation of AI, drafting new safeguards that would prohibit a wide range of dangerous use cases.These include prohibitions on mass facial recognition programs in public places and predictive policing algorithms that try to identify future offenders using personal data. The regulation also requires the creation of a public database of “high-risk” AI systems deployed by public and government authorities so that EU citizens can be informed about when and how they are being affected by this technology.The law in question is a new draft of the EU’s AI Act, which was approved today by two key committees: the Internal Market Committee and the Civil Liberties Committee. These committees... Continue reading…
Volvo may have gone too hard on software because now the EX90 is getting delayed
Image: Volvo Volvo announced that it was delaying production for its next-generation flagship electric SUV, the 2024 EX90, citing a need for further “software testing and development.”The EX90, a seven-seater luxury family-mover with 300 miles of range and a starting price under $80,000, was expected to go into production in late 2023 and hit showroom floors in early 2024. Now production won’t start until the first half of 2024, the Swedish automaker said in a statement. That likely means customers won’t take delivery until the second half of the year.“Demand for the Volvo EX90 remains high and to ensure a high-quality introduction of the car and to maximize customer benefit from its technology from day 1, Volvo Cars needs additional time in... Continue reading…
Google’s new Pixel 7A comes with free earbuds and a case or a $50 gift card
The 7A’s lovely coral color is exclusive to the Google Store, but it also comes in charcoal, light blue, and white elsewhere. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google actually did it. It made a new, very good, fairly affordable midrange phone and started shipping it right away. And not only is the Pixel 7A already released into the world for you to buy but also you can have your pick of some nice deals and early bird incentives. When you pick up the new Pixel 7A for its regular $499 price, Google is throwing in a $100 credit toward a pair of Pixel Buds (making the Pixel Buds A-Series free or the noise-canceling Pixel Buds Pro $99.99) and a free Case-Mate case (a $25 value). Meanwhile, retailers like Best Buy and Amazon are offering a $50 gift card with your purchase.The 7A costs $50 more than the Pixel 6A it replaces, but that extra money nets some nice upgrades like wireless charging, a... Continue reading…
Microsoft won’t give salaried employees raises this year
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is skipping raises for salaried employees this year. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees that only hourly workers will receive raises and blamed the move on the uncertain state of the economy.“We are clear that we are helping drive a major platform shift in this new era of AI, and doing so in a dynamic, competitive environment while also facing global macroeconomic uncertainties,” Nadella wrote. “We must maintain a leadership position in our at-scale businesses of today, generating enough yield to invest and lead in the next wave, while staying on the frontiers of both performance and efficiency.”While Microsoft will still offer salaried employees bonuses and stock awards,... Continue reading…
Foundation’s second season kicks off in July
Image: Apple One of Apple TV Plus’ biggest series is coming back for a second season this summer. Today, the streamer announced that season 2 of Foundation — the sci-fi epic based on the stories of Isaac Asimov — will premiere on July 14th. The new season will be 10 episodes long, with new episodes dropping on Fridays, and you can get a brief taste in the debut teaser trailer above.Foundation debuted back in 2021 and was notable in particular for its complexity, with a story that spanned multiple centuries. The second season will continue that tradition by taking place quite a long time after the first. Here’s the description:
Asus ROG Ally review: it’s time to stop pretending Windows is the answer
A big step forward for Windows handhelds — but is Windows the way forward at all? Continue reading…
Nintendo’s big year is about more than games
Photo by Zeng Hui / Xinhua via Getty Images Nintendo is a company whose success ebbs and flows. The glory days give way to lean periods, but things inevitably rebound. It happens in cycles. The quiet times of the GameCube gave way to the breakout mainstream popularity of the Wii. The humbling days of the Wii U are what paved the way for the transformative success of the Switch. And now, on the eve of the launch of what could be the biggest game of the year, we might just be seeing Nintendo at the peak of its powers.What’s notable about this particular moment is how it extends beyond video games. It started earlier in the year when Nintendo launched Super Nintendo World in Los Angeles, a theme park attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. (It followed a similar attraction in... Continue reading…
My early hours in Tears of the Kingdom were a comedy of errors
Image: Nintendo Let me tell you about the time I got stranded on an island floating in the sky.Much like its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom begins in a sort of training area. In this case, it’s a series of interconnected islands high up in the sky, where you’re able to not only unlock your initial abilities but also learn the basics of how to use them. There are even helpful ancient robots around to give you tips.It’s here that I first got access to Ultrahand, an ability that lets Link magically pick up objects, including stuff much too big for him to hold, and fuse them together. It looks something like this: Image: Nintendo One of the first and most obvious uses for this skill is to build bridges. You... Continue reading…
Tears of the Kingdom is a legend retold with slightly less wonder
Image: Nintendo Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor, but it’s still a fantastic new approach to Hyrule. Continue reading…
Sony’s new Xperia 1 V features upgraded camera hardware in a familiar design
The Xperia 1 V. | Image: Sony Sony has announced its latest flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 V. At first glance, it doesn’t look too different from the Xperia 1 IV that proceeded it, with its tall 21:9 display, vertical row of rear cameras, and sensible squared off design. But internally it’s using a new “Exmor T for mobile” sensor for its main camera, which Sony describes as a “2-layer Transistor Pixel stacked CMOS image sensor” that’s 1.7 times larger than the sensor in last year’s model. Sony claims this makes for double the low-light performance versus the Xperia 1 IV, helping to produce images with “rich colors and textures.”Like Sony’s other recent flagships, the Xperia 1 V is priced at the premium end of the spectrum. In the US, preorders open today for... Continue reading…
Google’s Find My Devices network adds key and wallet trackers from Chipolo
Image: Chipolo Google’s freshly expanded Find My Device platform has two new trackers coming from Chipolo: the One Point key finder and the Card Point wallet finder. While these trackers are dedicated to Google’s location tracking service, Chipolo also offers similar One Spot and Card Spot trackers for Apple’s Find My service.The names here are fairly self-explanatory. The new One Point wallet finder resembles a thick credit card that slips into your purse or wallet, while the key finder is a puck-shaped keyring. The latter is small enough to use in other circumstances though, such as keeping tabs on your luggage, bike, or even on a pet collar. Image: Chipolo The Card Point tracker doesn’t look too bulky compared to a standard... Continue reading…
Fairbuds XL review: modular headphones designed to go the distance
With readily available spare parts and a modular construction, Fairphone’s first over-ear headphones are a suitable companion to its repairable smartphones. I just wish they sounded better. Continue reading…
Fairphone is applying its repairability smarts to headphones
The headphones are designed to be modular and can be disassembled for repairs. | Image: Fairphone The Fairbuds XL are a pair of modular, repairable headphones that are designed to be easy to dismantle, easy to repair, and easy to keep using for longer. Continue reading…
The EPA tightens pollution standards for power plants, with a big loophole for coal and gas
A coal power plant in Texas in 2017 that became the first in the US to add carbon capture technology. | Photo by Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg via Getty Images The Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules for power plants today that are supposed to clean up pollution. But instead of encouraging more renewable energy growth, the proposal would actually help keep polluting coal and gas plants online.The proposed mandate requires existing power plants to start limiting their carbon dioxide emissions in 2030, introducing restrictions that would become more stringent over time. Any new gas power plants would have to comply with pollution caps as soon as they’re built. A fact sheet from the agency says it decided not to update rules for new coal plants since it doesn’t anticipate new coal facilities to come online, which are more expensive and polluting than gas plants.The proposed rules... Continue reading…
Canon’s PowerShot V10 is a vlogging-centric callback to old Flip Video cams
It’s actually kinda cute for a simple black-and-silver design. | Image: Canon Canon is finally stepping into the vlogging camera arena, and it’s doing so with a quirky new point-and-shoot geared toward a mindless “set-it-and-forget-it” crowd I’m not sure exists. The $429.99 Canon PowerShot V10 is an adorable little camera about the size of an extra-thick deck of cards that packs a fixed 19mm equivalent f/2.8 lens and marries it to a 20.9-megapixel one-inch-type sensor.It records 4K at up to 30 fps and is geared toward filming yourself with an articulating screen, front and rear record buttons, stereo mics with a 3.5mm mic jack, a Micro HDMI port, digital image stabilization, and a kickstand for propping it up. It’s expected to launch in June.More YouTube than TikTokWhat makes the V10 interesting is its... Continue reading…
The Verge’s 2023 Mother’s Day Gift Guide
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge From transparent chargers and TikTok gems to the latest wearables, we’ve curated a batch of unique gifts fit for any mom worth celebrating. Continue reading…
Twitter launches encrypted DMs behind a paywall
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a new support document, Twitter has detailed what you can expect from the first version of the platform’s encrypted direct messages. Perhaps most notably, to be able to send and receive encrypted messages, you’ll have to pay Twitter for the ability to do so. Platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, and iMessage already offer encrypted messaging for free, so having to pay for the feature on Twitter might be a hard pill to swallow.According to the document, encrypted DMs are only available if you are a verified user (somebody who pays for Twitter Blue), a verified organization (an organization that pays $1,000 per month), or an affiliate of a verified organization (which costs $50 per month per person). Both the sender and... Continue reading…
Google and Taito are teaming up on an AR Space Invaders game
Image: Google Google and Taito are partnering on a new augmented reality version of the arcade classic Space Invaders. The new game, Space Invaders: World Defense, will use Google tools like ARCore and newly-announced Geospatial Creator to let AR Space Invaders aliens fly around real-world locations.Based on a GIF in a Google tweet, it appears you’ll play the game kind of like a shooting gallery. In the GIF, a handful of aliens appear near and around a static city image, and a reticle appears so that the player can blast the aliens out of the sky. I get the sense this footage might not be fully representative of the final game, though — it kind of looks like the aliens have just been animated over a stock photo.
Here’s how the new Google Pixel Fold stacks up to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4
Do you like your Fold long or tall? | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google’s taken a page from Samsung’s book and made itself a foldable phone. In fact, the newly announced Google Pixel Fold, shown off at Google I/O 2023 alongside the Pixel 7A and Pixel Tablet, looks as if it borrowed a few chapters from Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4. The foldables share a fairly striking resemblance since Google opted for the phone-unfolds-into--tablet method of design philosophy and an equally lofty $1,799.99 starting price. However, when you look just a little closer, you notice some stark differences.Here, we’re pitting the two folding ultra-flagships up against one another to compare their specs and features on paper. While Samsung is on its fourth iteration of the Galaxy Fold, Google will be a first-time player in... Continue reading…
Google’s new Pixel Tablet is a $500 slate for the home
The Pixel Tablet comes with a speaker dock that provides a place to store and charge the tablet when it’s not in use. Google is officially back in the tablet business. After teasing it a year ago, the company has now announced the Pixel Tablet, a $499 slab that’s available for preorder starting today, May 10th, and will begin shipping on June 20th.Google’s history with tablets has been, well, fraught. The only real success it’s had was with the Nexus 7, a cheap, small tablet that was beloved when it came out back in 2012. The subsequent years saw the company try lots of ideas on portable touchscreen computers, launching new tablets with either Android or ChromeOS and then abandoning them shortly after. None ever recaptured the success of the Nexus 7. It even got to the point where Google’s head of hardware said it wouldn’t bother making new tablets... Continue reading…
Your Roku smart TV can now help protect your home
Roku’s new smart security system is the TV company’s latest product in its partnership with Wyze Labs. | Image: Roku Roku is expanding its smart home lineup and adding a smart security system, a solar panel to power its outdoor camera, and a multicolored LED strip light to its offerings. The move comes after initially jumping into the smart home game last October with the launch of a slew of gadgets, including security cameras, a video doorbell, smart plugs, and smart bulbs.The new expandable $99 Roku Home Monitoring System SE includes a keypad, a hub with a siren, a motion sensor, and two door / window sensors. You can install and monitor the security system yourself using the Roku Smart Home app, or you can sign up for 24/7 professional monitoring through Noonlight ($9.99 a month or $99.99 a year). Roku is offering 50 percent off for the first year... Continue reading…
How the Pixel 7A compares to the rest of Google’s Pixel 7 lineup — and the 6A
Unlike the Pixel 6A, the Pixel 7A offers 7.5W wireless charging. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The new Pixel Fold wasn’t the only smartphone Google introduced during this year’s Google I/O keynote. The budget-friendly Pixel 7A, a phone that essentially functions as a stripped-down version of last year’s Pixel 7, is already available at multiple retailers for $499.At 6.1 inches, Google’s latest Pixel phone is just as small as its predecessor, the Pixel 6A, but this year, it comes with a few extra perks not present on the last-gen model. That includes support for wireless charging, a new chipset, and a higher-refresh display for smoother scrolling — factors that surely play into the phone’s $50 price increase.Of course, despite the extra features, there are some tradeoffs you’ll still have to make if you plan on buying the Pixel... Continue reading…
Disney will bring Hulu content into Disney Plus and raise its ad-free prices
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney is combining Hulu and Disney Plus into a single streaming app. During Disney’s Q2 earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Bob Iger announced that the company is going to create a “one-app experience” within the US and said that it’s raising the price of its ad-free plan, which currently costs $10.99 per month.“While we continue to offer Disney plus Hulu and ESPN plus as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our DTC [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience,” Iger said.He continued, “Meanwhile, the... Continue reading…
LG’s giant new curved gaming monitor is up for sale in the US
Another big ultrawide curved gaming monitor has entered. | Image: LG LG has put its latest massive curved gaming monitor up for sale in the US, and it’s here to undercut Samsung’s standard Odyssey G9 by $200. The company’s new UltraGear 49-inch costs $1,299.99 on LG’s online store and includes the important gaming features like 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time on deck, along with the crucial RGB lighting on the rear to kick-start your picturesque gamer nightclub vibe.Now, this new LG UltraGear isn’t supposed to be cutting-edge in display technology like the company’s 45-inch OLED offering or Samsung’s QD-OLED and “8K” Mini-LED Odyssey gaming monitors. And it doesn't have the bending gimmicks of the LG Flex. Instead, this new LG is here to compare to Samsung’s immersive and already-proven regular... Continue reading…
Google’s new Project Starline prototype isn’t a giant booth
Image: Google Google has revealed a new, smaller version of its Project Starline 3D telepresence technology as part of its bevy of updates announced at Google I/O.In the past, I’ve described Project Starline as a video chat booth because it was a booth you could actually sit in to talk to lifelike holographic projections of another person. I got to sit in a Starline booth last October, and I thought it was really impressive. But this new Starline prototype looks more like a big TV that I can more reasonably imagine fitting in an office or conference room.In addition to the smaller size, the updated Starline apparently doesn’t require the special array of infrared light emitters and cameras used by the version of the technology that I saw. Instead,... Continue reading…
The Babylon 5 animated movie is B5: The Road Home, and here’s what it’s about
Image: Warner Bros. Animation Babylon 5 is coming back as an animated movie, series creator J. Michael Straczynski revealed last week, and today The Hollywood Reporter has the exclusive on what it’s about: Sheridan traveling through the multiverse in search of a way home.The basic synopsis, via THR:
Google is bringing YouTube, Waze, and Zoom to cars with native Android software
Image: Google Google announced a slew of new features that will be available to cars with native Android software, including YouTube, Waze, and video conferencing apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex by Cisco. Video games are coming to Android-equipped cars. The company also announced plans to create an “Android for Car Apps Library” for third-party developers to build their own apps for Android-equipped cars.But the announcement that streaming video and virtual meeting tools are coming to infotainment screens is sure to pique the most interest among Android users.Google teased the ability to watch YouTube videos while sitting in your parked vehicle last year. Now, the company is saying the feature will be available “in the coming weeks”... Continue reading…
Google’s new image search tools could help you identify AI-generated fakes
Image: Google In a world increasingly filled with photorealistic images that have either been altered with AI editing tools or created using a generative AI bot like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, how do you know if a picture is real? One thing that could help is a new tool Google is rolling out this summer for English-language searches in the US called “About this image.”It’s similar to the “about this” drop-down that appears on links in regular search results but is now available in Google image searches. When you perform a “reverse image search” by uploading an image of unknown provenance, you’ll now see a menu option that lets you find out when that picture and others similar to it were first indexed by Google — as well as where on the web it... Continue reading…
Google launches an AI coding bot for Android developers
Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge Google is launching a new AI-powered coding bot for Android developers. During its I/O event on Wednesday, Google announced that the tool, called Studio Bot, will help developers build apps by generating code, fixing errors, and answering questions about Android.According to Google, the bot is built on Codey, the company’s new foundational coding model that stems from its updated PaLM 2 large language model (LLM). Studio Bot supports both the Kotlin and Java programming languages and will live directly in the toolbar on Android Studio. There, developers can get quick answers to their questions or even have the bot debug a portion of their code. Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge While Google notes that developers... Continue reading…
Google will help Play Store developers build out their listings with generative AI
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is making generative AI tools available to Play Store developers in an attempt to make it easier for them to build out their app listings. It’s one of a pair of AI-powered features Google is announcing for its Android app store at its I/O developer conference today, alongside a new review summary feature that will use AI to summarize app reviews. Other features include a machine translation feature for listings and new options for promoting apps.The search giant is characterizing the generative AI tool as an experimental feature that’s designed to make drafting a listing easier. “Just open our AI helper, enter a couple of prompts like audience and key theme, and it will generate a draft you can edit, discard, or use,” its blog... Continue reading…
Google I/O 2023: all the news from Google’s big developer event
Illustration: The Verge Google plans to tease the future of Search, Pixel devices, and more at what’s expected to be an AI-heavy event. Continue reading…
Where to preorder the new Google Pixel Tablet
Google’s forthcoming slate starts at $499. | Image: Google After teasing it at last year’s Google I/O, Google finally confirmed at this year’s developer conference that it’ll release its first-gen Google Pixel Tablet on June 20th. Pricing starts at $499, and if you want to be one of the first to get your hands on the new Android tablet, you can preorder it starting today, May 10th, from Google.Powered by the same Tensor G2 processor found in Google’s Pixel 7 phones — including the new Pixel Fold and Pixel 7A — you can use the tablet for a range of tasks, from making 1080p video calls to sharpening blurry images. With the Google TV app and Chromecast built in, you should also be able to easily cast content from your Pixel phone to the tablet. The forthcoming slate comes with 8GB of RAM, too,... Continue reading…
The nine biggest announcements from Google I/O 2023
Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge Google just finished up its I/O keynote, where it announced some pretty major updates to its Pixel lineup and showed off its latest advances in AI. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the event live, we’ve rounded up all of the biggest news that came out of the Google I/O keynote.Three new additions to the Pixel lineup Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google’s Pixel hardware took center stage during the keynote, as the company launched three new products: the Pixel Fold, the Pixel Tablet, and the budget-friendly Pixel 7A.The $1,799 Pixel Fold marks Google’s first entry into the foldable scene, featuring a 5.8-inch OLED outer screen that unfurls to reveal a larger 7.6-inch display that also is an OLED panel with a... Continue reading…
Frank Ocean fans are getting scammed with fake AI-generated songs
Image: ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images Fans of Frank Ocean lost thousands of dollars after a scammer sold them fake AI-generated songs, according to a report from Motherboard. It was only a matter of time.The scammer made off with around $13,000 CAD by selling a collection of bogus “leaked” tracks by the artist to a Discord server of his fans. To build trust, the scammer reportedly shared one real unreleased Frank Ocean song on Discord and then jumped at the opportunity when they saw that fans couldn’t tell the difference between the real track and a fake one.“We now live in a world where nobody knows if a song is made by the artist or by a robot,” a member of the Discord told Motherboard.This is one of the most urgent problems with AI-generated songs for artists and... Continue reading…
The Pixel Fold is Google’s $1,800 entry into folding phones
The Pixel Fold is a smartphone that opens up into a small tablet. Google is finally giving Samsung some competition in the folding phone space with the Pixel Fold, a device that transforms between a standard smartphone and a small tablet by folding in half. Continue reading…
Google Pixel 7A review: a better deal
It’s $50 more than the Pixel 6A, but some key upgrades keep Google’s A-series at the top of the midrange class. Continue reading…
Android’s new generative AI can reply to your texts and design its own wallpaper
Is this woman real? Google’s blog post doesn’t say. | Image: Google Generative AI is all the rage — and Google has found two new ways to put the tech in the palm of your hand.First, it’s announcing Magic Compose, a new feature in Android’s default Messages app that’ll let you respond to texts with auto-suggested responses “based on the content of your messages” so they sound like you, or pull a Grammarly and make them sound more “concise” and “professional,” or even imitate a famous style. Image: Google Me? I can’t wait to put it to work on those pig butchering scammers who keep pretending they’ve got the “wrong number.” The beta’s coming this summer.Second, as part of a Pixel-exclusive next month, Google’s adding generative AI wallpaper where “you can answer suggested prompts... Continue reading…
Gmail can now scan the dark web for your email address
Stay ahead of potential threats by checking if your Gmail address has been published to the dark web. | Image: Google A new security feature coming to Google accounts could inform you if your email address has been published on the dark web. At Google I/O today, the search giant announced plans to roll out a handful of new security features designed to better protect those using Google products and services, including spam protections for Google Drive and improved search history deletion in Maps.The company is expanding its “dark web report” feature to all Gmail accounts in the US over the coming weeks, which scans to check if your Gmail address is appearing on the dark web and advises on steps that users can take to bolster their online security. The password manager built into the Chrome browser already does a fairly good job of nagging you to keep... Continue reading…
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